"The town was right behind us. The supporters and sponsors, it was massive. You'd think it was going to be an AFL grand final."
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It was fun reflecting on Meander Valley's inaugural premiership with former coach Brett Jarman this week.
The Suns will celebrate their 2012 Leven Football Association senior flag when they host St Pats on Saturday in NTFA division one. The LFA is now defunct.
Past players, supporters and sponsors are invited to the Westbury clubrooms from midday.
A video replay of the 2012 grand final will be shown after the senior game.
Meander Valley defeated Mole Creek by 17 points at Railton after surviving a tense final 15 minutes.
The Reggie Baker medal for best on ground went to the Suns' Braden Crosby.
How did the Suns come about?
"It pretty much happened in the local pub, a few of us were sitting around on a Sunday afternoon having a beer with the local publican," Jarman said.
"Then we held a community meeting up in the old clubrooms and took expressions of interest. I stood up in front of everyone and did a spiel on what I thought it could do for the younger lads in the community. I had a sign in sheet as they come in the door to see who'd be interested to play.
"Then we created a business case.
"That year, in November 2011, we started training and got some young local lads that really hadn't played football for years. To the point where some of them, I even had to teach how to kick the football."
Long-standing clubs Westbury and Hagley had been disbanded for many years up to 2012. Westbury disbanded in 1998 while Hagley played on for some years.
The fierce rivals played in the 1996 Esk-Deloraine Football Association grand final, which Westbury won.
Jarman's link was to Westbury because his brother, Paul, played in their final premiership (1996) before passing away in 2000.
Jarman, who had been playing at Deloraine, decided not to run around in 2012 and instead focused on building a foundation for the club.
"We didn't pay any players, no one got paid. And even in that era, everyone got paid. It was a big thing, it has been for years," he said.
"Everyone just bought into it and could see the benefit of what it was going to do for the Meander Valley area. Obviously we had Deloraine and Bracknell close. But with the area and the locals, there were some unfortunate kids that didn't have access to that. So we were there to provide it."
There was a huge build up to the big dance with about 100 people in the clubrooms on Thursday night.
The Suns had enjoyed a great season with Alex Wadley kicking 100 goals and Crosby winning the association best and fairest.
It was a tight grand final with great subplots.
"Josh Cables pretty much kicked the sealer for us and he was one of the guys that I had to teach how to kick a football properly," Jarman said.
"They were all in it together. There weren't standouts, they were all there and wanted to achieve and succeed."
It was a wonderful milestone for all the hard work behind-the-scenes too.
Jarman highlighted the contributions of then president Leigh Watts and secretary, Ian Newman.
For Jarman, there was significant family history with his brother's feats at Westbury as well as his dad's success.
"Forty years earlier, my dad (Colin) played in a (Westbury) flag so we were saying he was the same age as I was when coaching (that day), so it was significant," he said.
On top of that, the Suns became the first team in the history of Tasmanian football to win a premiership in their first season.
"That got recognised on The Footy Show and there was a Herald Sun picture," Jarman said.
He added: "I got flown up to the Gold Coast Suns, because we were the only club in Australia that actually took on the Suns (logo) at that time....we just chose that (logo), we were new, they were new."
They ended up with the Geelong theme song because Jarman and Watts supported the Cats.
Meander Valley now has 10 years of history and gaining their first women's side was another milestone.
"They're very competitive and drawing people into the community," Jarman said.
"One thing we set out to do was provide better facilities and we've achieved that. We've probably got some of the best facilities in the association now."
The Suns also made the LFA grand final in 2013 before joining the NTFA in 2014.
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